Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#201

Post by at-fates-hands » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

It's funny, about six or seven years ago, most of the companies I worked for had gone to an open floor plan. Within a few years, all of them had gone back to cubes for a number of reasons.

I just started at a large corporation three years ago and they spent millions going to an elaborate open office plan which was similar to what others have referred to as "neighborhoods". At first it was called "hoteling" where we just had a ton of desks with monitors and a dock so you didn't have a set place or cube to work.

After about six months, teams had taken over areas without telling anybody, they pushed other teams out to other areas. Then they shifted a ton more people to our building so now space was even more limited. They started moving desks into common areas meant for collaboration where people met and ate lunch in order to handle in the influx of new people. People started "squatting" on their desks, putting personal pics and their mouse and other stuff to claim their desks so nobody would/could sit there. This clearly was not what the architect/designer had in mind. I quickly got to the point where I was so frustrated, I just tapped out and now I work from home almost 100% of the time.

It's funny how they had this great idea and it was totally ruined by standard human behavior.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#202

Post by orips » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

bcohen123 wrote: post #137

Here at Kensho we try to accommodate everyone's preferences. We've got single offices, 2-3 person offices, and open floor areas for whose who prefer that.

If you weren't located at Ramat HaHayal that could almost become relevant.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#203

Post by dsign » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

dcchambers wrote: post #178

When I worked in academia (working for a high throughout computing research group at a large state university) we all had our own offices. I don't know if individual offices are all that common any more due to space issues at universities, but I think they're almost all shared offices or cubes at worst. I've never seen an open office plan at a University. I work in healthcare now and share a "large" office with 3 oth…

My only experience with an open floor plan was in academia :-) ... terrible thing, I suffered a lot and made other people suffer as well, since I'm a loud typist ... I have never understood how some people think open floor plans are a good idea for getting work done.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#204

Post by shaklee3 » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

wskemper wrote: post #20

I work for Viasat; all of our new-build offices in the past few years have been designed around what we call the neighborhood concept. A neighborhood is a set of individual offices (maybe 60sqft-ish?) with three solid walls, and one glass/wood wall with a sliding door. All the offices open into a central room that can be outfitted in a bunch of different ways. There are neighborhoods of different sizes, and basically…

I work for viasat as well, and I think your group is the only one using that collaboration area :).

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#205

Post by farnsworthy » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

DisruptiveDave wrote: post #170

I juuuust got off a catch-up call with an old college buddy who works at one of the big wireless companies. He described what I read about here on HN and in some blog posts: The company completely changed its "culture" in a desperate attempt to "attract millennials" (and be on trend). Moved to an open floor plan where nobody has an assigned desk. You literally cannot leave anything overnight or you get some sort of a…

Open plan verdict: Too much mayo.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#206

Post by VLM » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

tintor wrote: post #10

dx034 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more about the noise level. Open plan office means that there's constant noise from talking and phones. Some can ignore that noise but for others, noise cancelling headphones are the only solution. Easier communication is certainly a benefit but I'm not sure if it outweighs the loss in productivity, especially for people that don't constantly have to talk to others to do their job.

Noise cancelling headphones will cancel low frequency sounds like fans / AC, but not high frequency ones like talking and phones.

"Wearing headphones will be treated as insubordination, management wants you participating in conversations".

This was only slightly paraphrased from written policy at a former workplace.

You have to show some political savvy; wearing headphones in a open office is exactly like being noticed playing games on your phone or sleeping while the CEO speaks at gathering, or making a big production of refusing to answer phone calls or questions from certain coworkers.

There's a critical distinction of scale; if "they" don't want you working and prefer talking and distraction to the level that they bake it into the physical architecture of the office, that's really bad for the company on a large scale, but on a small scale trying civil disobedience by wearing headphones will just get you fired. Personally on the downside you're better off crashing the company than getting fired and on the upside the people responsible for the large scale operation of the company probably have quiet private offices anyway and aren't going to reward you for fixing the company anyway even if by some miracle you did it.

Open offices are literally in the most straightforward sense a declaration the company has no idea what its doing so talking about it is a good first step. Cutting yourself off from that with headphones means they may as well not pay you.

Civil disobedience in this case has no positive outcome; ditch the headphones.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#207

Post by ebbv » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #193

ebbv wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that sounds like a waking nightmare. If I had to sit on bench seating all day I'd probably quit after a week.

Except that isn’t true. Ergo is a really big deal at Apple. You get a standard chair, but you can have an ergo evaluation and they’ll buy you whatever chair you need if your existing chair isn’t correct. Nobody is spending their work day on benches; that’s a fact.

This seems like something you should have replied to the parent with. I wasn't asserting what happens at Apple, I was reacting to what he said. If he is making stuff up, call him out not me.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#208

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

viach wrote: post #181

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow — I'd like your work environment. Mine is approximately 6m² and it's shared by 8 people!

How is it even possible? 2-tier working tables?

In case I'm using the wrong terminology, I mean 6 metres x 6 metres rather than sqrt(6) metres x sqrt(6) metres.

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#209

Post by farnsworthy » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #176

Funny behaviors from an open office plan I experienced: - tribes claiming spaces: there was a couch area where a natural affinity group formed based on common personality types typical of urban/suburban tribal divide. developed an in-group/out-group mentality. a counter group formed in a lunch area. - posturing: top tech individual contributor used main boardroom for "really important video conference meetings," and…

Beautiful. I wonder if a business publication would be interested in an expanded version of this...

Re: Ask HN: What are some tech companies that do not use an open floor plan?

#210

Post by 3uclid » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #176

Funny behaviors from an open office plan I experienced: - tribes claiming spaces: there was a couch area where a natural affinity group formed based on common personality types typical of urban/suburban tribal divide. developed an in-group/out-group mentality. a counter group formed in a lunch area. - posturing: top tech individual contributor used main boardroom for "really important video conference meetings," and…

>Interior design wouldn't solve all these problems, but the aesthetic of a kindergarten or hipster daycare certainly exacerbated them.

LOL, that's an amazing description.